Upgrade GPU or wait for full rebuild?

[SoulCreatr]

I will be doing a full rebuild next fall after July, but I will probably wait until late fall so new hardware prices will normalize. I just upgraded to using the 29" AOC q2963 monitor with resolution of 2560x1080 and I feel like my poor 6870 is dragging in some of the newer games. At my previous res of 1680x1050 the fps would get low at times but nothing unbearable to make me lower eye candy and I do like to be able to play games at high settings.

I am thinking about picking up a 7870 with one of the current sales for about $120. Will this be a big enough jump or better to suck it up and wait? The other option is to get a 7970/newer and use that into the next build for a couple years or until it starts dragging the new system down. The rest of my system is in my sig, note the CPU is the xeon variant of the q9450.

Games I currently play: Crysis 1-3, Skyrim with texture pack, X-Com, TERA (but I generally play a free mmo and drop it for another every other month), Metro 2033 and Last Night, and Far Cry 3.

 

[defaultluser]

Yeah for that resolution I would not go less than a 7950, with a 7970 preferred. The 7870 is only about 40 percent faster than your current card, and since your resolution would be increased by 50 percent that would leave you right on the edge of playability...AGAIN!

Invest in a little more power now that you have a higher resolution monitor.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

While a GPU upgrade will give you the biggest increase FPS wise, your CPU is rather old these days. I don't think I'd spend too much money on a new GPU when you're gonna need a new CPU/MOBO/RAM upgrade in the near future.

How near of a future depends on how much you should spend on a new GPU. If it's going to be within a few months, I would get a hefty GPU that your CPU bottle necks. If not, then I'd get a cheap upgrade that you can replace 6+ months from now when you build an entire new system.

 

[SoulCreatr]

Thank you both for the advice. Is the 7950 really a lot faster than an overclocked 7870? I don't need to be doing 60+ fps, just 30-40s would be fine for now.

Skillz, I know my system is getting near the end of it's gaming life. I generally build a new one every 5-6 years with GPU replacements about every 2-3. Chances are I will not build a new box until about a year from now so that the new GPU and CPU versions are out and in supply.

I think I am going to go with the 7870 and overclock it. From my general understanding the next AMD and NVidia cards will be based on the new die shrink and should bring more performance with better power/acoustics management. So $120 to get by a year comfortably does not sound too bad.

 

[PiSquared]

I suggest keeping the current kit and lowering details in games until July. Or save the cash now and bump it up to spring instead of July. Getting a card for only 7 months is a bit of a waste in my opinion.

 

[Dangman]

Thank you both for the advice. Is the 7950 really a lot faster than an overclocked 7870? I don't need to be doing 60+ fps, just 30-40s would be fine for now.

Don't forget that the HD 7950 3GB can also be overclocked. Anyway, yes a HD 7950 is faster than a HD 7870 by a decent margin with really higher-end video cards.

I will be doing a full rebuild next fall after July, but I will probably wait until late fall so new hardware prices will normalize
.............
Chances are I will not build a new box until about a year from now so that the new GPU and CPU versions are out and in supply.

Reposting this bit:

Now would be a good time to upgrade the CPU, mobo, and RAM. The Intel CPUs coming in 2014 won't be that much of an upgrade over current Intel Haswell CPUs. In addition, DDR3 RAM pricing will more than likely have increased by then. Note that this time last year, one could easily get 16GB of DDR3 RAM for $70. Now $70 gets you only 8GB of DDR3 RAM. In addition, the Intel Skylake CPUs that are supposedly coming out in 2015 will more than likely use rather expensive DDR4 RAM. It probably won't be until 2016 when we'll see a mainstream Intel CPU that'll be a cost-effective and worthwhile upgrade over a Haswell or even an Ivy Bridge setup. Or that DDR4 pricing might drop down to more reasonable levels.

So if you upgrade the CPU, mobo, and now, you can probably hold off on another CPU, mobo, and now RAM upgrade (DDR4 now) for another three years when it'll be cost-effective again to do another upgrade

 

[McFry]

Dangman pretty much hit the nail on the head. There's probably a $300 difference between upgrading in 2014 or upgrading right now, and maybe less than 10% performance boost at the same time. So basically if you build right now or 6 months from now, either way you have a system that will last you until 2017 when you will be doing a total overhaul again anyway. Build yourself a system before the end of the year and capitalize on all the sales and deals that will be taking place shortly.

 

[SoulCreatr]

I would love to build a new system now but if I wait until July my work will put up to $1500 towards a new computer. If I buy everything now then I won't get reimbursed sadly. I have a general build plan but since it is so far away I do not plan to pick anything up until at least July. Unless I spot an amazing deal on the Corsair 500R case which I plan to use for my next build (hoping to use the H100i CPU cooler with it for my first foray into the water cooled stuff), but realistically a case is about the only part to pick up early.

 

[tiraides]

If you aren't going to build until July, then it's not worth us giving you advice right now. Newer parts will arrive and the deals and specials will be different than what's available now.

I recommend that you wait until you're a week or two away from ordering everything and revisit this thread then.